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How are AI assistants changing higher education?
Get PDFContext: Higher education is changing at an accelerating pace due to the widespread use of digital teaching and emerging technologies. In particular, AI assistants such as ChatGPT pose significant challenges for higher education institutions because they bring change to several areas, such as learning assessments or learning experiences.
Objective: Our objective is to discuss the impact of AI assistants in the context of higher education, outline possible changes to the context, and present recommendations for adapting to change.
Method: We review related work and develop a conceptual structure that visualizes the role of AI assistants in higher education.
Results: The conceptual structure distinguishes between humans, learning, organization, and disruptor, which guides our discussion regarding the implications of AI assistant usage in higher education. The discussion is based on evidence from related literature.
Conclusion: AI assistants will change the context of higher education in a disruptive manner, and the tipping point for this transformation has already been reached. It is in our hands to shape this transformation
Mixed-integer NMPC for real-time supervisory energy management control in residential buildings
Get PDFIn recent years, building energy supply and distribution systems have become more complex, with an increasing number of energy generators, stores, flows, and possible combinations of operating modes. This poses challenges for supervisory control, especially when balancing the conflicting goals of maximizing comfort while minimizing costs and emissions to contribute to global climate protection objectives. Mixed-integer nonlinear model predictive control is a promising approach for intelligent real-time control that is able to properly address the specific characteristics and restrictions of building energy systems. We present a strategy that utilizes a decomposition approach, combining partial outer convexification with the Switch-Cost Aware Rounding procedure to handle switching behavior and operating time constraints of building components in real-time. The efficacy is demonstrated through practical applications in a single-family home with a combined heat and power unit and in a multi-family apartment complex with 18 residential units. Simulation studies show high correspondence to globally optimal solutions with significant cost savings potential of around 19%
Improving mental well-being in psychocardiology — a feasibility trial for a non-blended web application as a brief metacognitive-based intervention in cardiovascular disease patients
Get PDFBackground:
Many patients with cardiovascular disease also show a high comorbidity of mental disorders, especially such as anxiety and depression. This is, in turn, associated with a decrease in the quality of life. Psychocardiological treatment options are currently limited. Hence, there is a need for novel and accessible psychological help. Recently, we demonstrated that a brief face-to-face metacognitive therapy (MCT) based intervention is promising in treating anxiety and depression. Here, we aim to translate the face-to-face approach into digital application and explore the feasibility of this approach.
Methods:
We translated a validated brief psychocardiological intervention into a novel non-blended web app. The data of 18 patients suffering from various cardiac conditions but without diagnosed mental illness were analyzed after using the web app over a two-week period in a feasibility trial. The aim was whether a nonblended web app based MCT approach is feasible in the group of cardiovascular patients with cardiovascular disease.
Results:
Overall, patients were able to use the web app and rated it as satisfactory and beneficial. In addition, there was first indication that using the app improved the cardiac patients’ subjectively perceived health and reduced their anxiety. Therefore, the approach seems feasible for a future randomized controlled trial.
Conclusion:
Applying a metacognitive-based brief intervention via a nonblended web app seems to show good acceptance and feasibility in a small target group of patients with CVD. Future studies should further develop, improve and validate digital psychotherapy approaches, especially in patient groups with a lack of access to standard psychotherapeutic care
Generationszentriertes Employer Branding in der deutschen Medienbranche? Eine Analyse aktuell vorhandener Metaphernkonzepte in der digitalen Employer Branding Kommunikation großer deutscher Medienkonzerne für die Mitarbeitendenakquise der Generation Z
Get PDFDie Generation Z stellt Arbeitgebende vor eine Herausforderung. In Zeiten, in denen in vielen Branchen Fachkräftemangel herrscht und der Beschäftigten-Nachwuchs in seiner Anzahl wesentlich geringer ist als die Lücken, die Pensionierte bei ihrem Rentenantritt hinterlassen, ist eine hohe Arbeitgebendenattraktivität nicht nur viel Wert, sondern fundamental. Gerade im Hinblick auf die gewünschten Mitarbeitenden jüngerer Generationen müssen Unternehmen neu denken und ihre gewohnten Kommunikationsaktivitäten anpassen. Ein erfolgreiches Employer Branding kennt die Ansprüche und Charakteristika seiner Zielgruppen und schöpft gängige Instrumente und Maßnahmen aus, um den gewünschten Effekt nach außen zu erzeugen. Allerdings wird Sprache auch in dieser Disziplin nicht aktiv in all ihrer Komplexität und mitsamt all ihren Möglichkeiten betrachtet. Ein Instrument, dessen theoretische Fundierung eine lange Zeit zurückreicht, welches jedoch in der dazugehörigen Fachliteratur gemeinhin als wirkungsstark gilt, ist die metaphorische Redewendung.
Die vorliegende Masterarbeit befasst sich mit der Forschungslücke, welche aus der Überschneidung der Themenbereiche Metaphernforschung, Employer Branding (Kommunikation) und (Werten der) Generation Z besteht. Ziel dieser Masterthesis ist das Bestimmen des Status Quos hinsichtlich der Verwendung von Metaphern im Kontext von zielgruppenspezifischer Employer Branding Kommunikation in der deutschen Medienbranche. Mit Bezug auf die Zielgruppe der Generation Z wird die Vermittlung von Werten ebendieser Zielgruppe durch Metaphern in den Fokus genommen
Reconstruction and Validation of the UX Factor Trust for the User Experience Questionnaire Plus (UEQ+)
Get PDFAs digital technologies advance, user experience (UX) has become crucial for software and services success. The User Experience Questionnaire Plus (UEQ+) is a flexible tool used to evaluate UX through questionnaires tailored to specific problems, yet a critical factor often overlooked is Trust. Trust, understood as a user’s belief in a software’s ability to function consistently, securely, and with respect for user data privacy, is especially pivotal in areas like financial services, health informatics, and e-commerce platforms. This paper focuses on the construction and validation of Trust as a new factor in the UEQ+. During the construction phase, an initial collection of potential items was assembled for the trust factor. A subsequent study involving 405 participants facilitated the reduction of these items to four, a task accomplished via factor analysis. The proceeding stages involved two additional validation phases, enlisting a total of 897 participants, wherein the selected items were subject to validation. The culmination of this process resulted in a newly validated factor, Trust, which is constituted by the following items: insecure-secure, untrustworthy-trustworthy, unreliable-reliable, and non-transparent-transparent
Verantwortlicher Umgang mit Ressourcen – ein Praxisbeispiel zu interdisziplinärem Lehren und Lernen
Get PDFDer Beitrag basiert auf den Erfahrungen aus einem Drittmittelprojekt, das den Aufbau innovativer Lehr- und Lernstrukturen für interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit zum Ziel hatte. An dem Projekt beteiligt waren Lehrende und Studierende aus fünf Fachrichtungen der Hochschule Hannover. Die Lehrenden haben gemeinsam mit einer Hochschuldidaktikerin ein neues Lehr-Lernangebot entwickelt, in dessen Mittelpunkt die Bearbeitung von Fragestellungen nachhaltiger Entwicklung in interdisziplinären Teams stand. Dabei hat sich gezeigt, wie vielfältig die Perspektiven auf das Thema und die Zusammenarbeit sind, wie unterschiedlich die fachspezifische Sprache ist und wie sehr sich die generellen Denk- und Arbeitsweisen der Disziplinen unterscheiden. Für das Gelingen der Zusammenarbeit trotz Heterogenität, sind Mut, Geduld und Offenheit nötig, um sich auf das Fremde einzulassen. Gleichzeitig ist es elementar, eine gemeinsame ‚Sprache‘ zu finden, damit Verständigung über Disziplingrenzen hinweg möglich ist
Self- and surrogate-seeking of information about mental health and illness in Germany
Get PDFBackground: Seeking information on mental health issues – both for oneself and on behalf of others (so-called surrogate-seeking) – is a critical early step in dealing with mental illness and known to impede stigmatizing attitudes and foster help-seeking. Yet, knowledge about mental health tends to be insufficient worldwide. Therefore, it is necessary to better understand the search for mental health information and examine the factors that are positively associated with information-seeking.
Method: In a face-to-face survey in Germany (N = 1,522), we investigated the factors related to mental health information-seeking. The data was analyzed by means of a logistic regression model, in which we distinguished those searching information for themselves from so-called surrogate seekers, i.e., people who seek information on behalf of someone else.
Results: Twenty-six percent of German adults in our sample have already searched for information on mental health, with the majority already having searched for information for others (73% of all seekers). Our findings indicate that individuals’ proximity to people with mental health issues, including their own mental health treatment experience (Cramer’s V = .429, p < .001), education (Cramer’s V = .184, p < .001), and desire for social distance from the affected people (F [1, 1516] = 73.580, p < .001, η2 = .046), play an important role in mental health information-seeking. The patterns of sociodemographic and proximity factors hereby differ between self-seekers and surrogate-seekers.
Conclusions: Our study provides insights into the public’s mental health information orientation. The findings may particularly guide strategies to improve mental health awareness and fill knowledge gaps in supporting informed decision-making and reducing stigma. Surrogate seekers appear to be an important and distinctive target group for mental health information provision. Depending on whether one wants to promote surrogate- or self-seeking seekers, different target groups and determinants should be addressed
Neue Anforderungen an die Fahrbibliotheken der Zukunft
Get PDFDie Zukunft der Öffentlichen Bibliotheken ist aktuell ein viel diskutiertes Thema. In dieser Bachelorarbeit werden die Anforderungen an die mobilen Bibliotheken der Zukunft untersucht. Sie werden in Deutschland als Fahrbibliotheken, Fahrbüchereien, Bibliotheksbusse oder Bücherbusse bezeichnet. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist es darzustellen, welche Relevanz Fahrbibliotheken zukünftig im öffentlichen Bibliothekssystem haben. Die Untersuchung erfolgt methodisch durch eine Literaturrecherche. Der theoretische Teil zeigt Praxisbeispiele für Fahrbibliotheken aus Deutschland und dem Ausland auf. Es werden die Länder Dänemark, Singapur und die USA betrachtet. Im zweiten Teil werden drei Zukunftsszenarien von verschiedenen Experten und Expertinnen erläutert. Anhand dessen lassen sich die fünf Hauptanforderungen, der Beitrag zur kulturellen Bildung, die Bibliothek als Dritter Ort, die Integration und Inklusion und die Anforderungen an die Fahrzeuge ableiten. Die Anforderungen werden durch Beispiele von bereits vorhandenen neuen Konzepten und Dienstleistungen gestützt
Real-Time Rendering of Eclipses without Incorporation of Atmospheric Effects
Get PDFIn this paper, we present a novel approach for real-time rendering of soft eclipse shadows cast by spherical, atmosphereless bodies. While this problem may seem simple at first, it is complicated by several factors. First, the extreme scale differences and huge mutual distances of the involved celestial bodies cause rendering artifacts in practice. Second, the surface of the Sun does not emit light evenly in all directions (an effect which is known as limb darkening). This makes it impossible to model the Sun as a uniform spherical light source. Finally, our intended applications include real-time rendering of solar eclipses in virtual reality, which require very high frame rates. As a solution to these problems, we precompute the amount of shadowing into an eclipse shadow map, which is parametrized so that it is independent of the position and size of the occluder. Hence, a single shadow map can be used for all spherical occluders in the Solar System. We assess the errors introduced by various simplifications and compare multiple approaches in terms of performance and precision. Last but not least, we compare our approaches to the state-of-the-art and to reference images. The implementation has been published under the MIT license
Effect of Antibiotic Compared to Non-Antibiotic Dry Cow Treatment on the Bacteriological Cure of Intramammary Infections during the Dry Period—A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study
Get PDFAntimicrobials are widely used to cure intramammary infections (IMI) in dairy cows during the dry period (DP). Nevertheless, the IMI cure is influenced by many factors and not all quarters benefit from antimicrobial dry cow treatment (DCT). To evaluate the true effect of antibiotic DCT compared to self-cure and the role of causative pathogens on the IMI cure, a retrospective cross-sectional study was performed. The analysis included 2987 quarters infected at dry-off (DO). Information on DCT, causative pathogens, somatic cell count, milk yield, amount of lactation, Body Condition Score, and season and year of DO were combined into categorical variables. A generalized linear mixed model with a random cow, farm and year effect and the binary outcome of bacteriological cure of IMI during the DP was conducted. In the final model, a significant effect (p < 0.05) on DP cure was seen for the DO season and the category of causative pathogens (categories being: Staphylococcus aureus, non-aureus staphylococci, streptococci, coliforms, ‘other Gram-negative bacteria’, ‘other Gram positive bacteria’, non-bacterial infections and mixed infections), while antibiotic DCT (vs. non-antibiotic DCT) only showed a significant effect in combination with the pathogen categories streptococci and ‘other Gram-positive bacteria’